Telescopic gangways have been known to be designed such that airplane passengers can move from a passenger ramp into the airplane or conversely, from the airplane to the passenger ramp, without being exposed to environmental factors. It has also been known that bellows, which arch over the telescopic gangway in the manner of a tunnel, are used for this purpose. If desired, the tunnel may be a tube closed all around. The bellows are fixed with one of their ends, the inner end, in relation to the passenger ramp. The length of the bellows can be changed to the extent that the bellows can be brought closer to the fuselage with their front or outer end until they come into contact with the fuselage, surrounding a door in the fuselage. The length of the bellows is inherently correspondingly long in the functional position. When not in use, it can be collapsed, surrounding an opening leading to the passenger ramp, and be in contact with a wall of the passenger ramp. To make it possible to bring the front end of a bellows as close to the fuselage as possible, in the case of different airplane contours, with an inexpensive contouring device, the front side of the bellows is provided, at its outer or front end, with a circular strip made of a pressure-elastic material, i.e., a bumper.
The bumper is subject to considerable wear even if great care is taken, so that a worn bumper must be replaced with a new one after a relatively short operating time. Such wear is avoidable only to a very limited extent.
The task of the present invention is, consequently, to design the front end of a bellows that can be used as a transition protection for a telescopic gangway so that a gap-free contact between the bellows and the fuselage can be achieved while minimizing unavoidable wear, and providing for replacement of a worn bumper with a new bumper in little time, with few tools, and with little enough work so that replacement can be achieved even on a taxiway.
This task is accomplished by a transition protection according to the claims.